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About Licensing

Benefit from Advances in Virtualization

Woman beside server hardware

Virtualization technologies offer new ways for your organization to have a more dynamic, cost-effective IT environment. With the Microsoft virtualization platform, you can enhance every phase of the IT life cycle. And the licensing model for Microsoft products in a virtual computing environment is easy to understand and implement.

Overview of Licensing for Virtualization

Specialized license rights for relevant products can help you take advantage of existing and future technologies across the complete Microsoft virtualization platform.

Windows Server 2008 Enterprise

Run up to four software instances at a time in virtual operating system environments on a server under a single server license.

Windows Server 2008 Datacenter

Run any number of software instances in physical and virtual operating system environments on a server.

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

Run any number of software instances in one physical server and any number of virtual operating system environments on the server.

Windows Vista Enterprise Centralized Desktop (VECD)

Flexible, subscription-based licensing to run Windows Vista Enterprise operating system in virtual machines running on servers. Each VECD license allows one user to access up to four virtual instances per access device running concurrently.

System Center Server Management Suite Enterprise (SMSE)

SMSE offers a comprehensive solution that includes Virtual Machine Manager and the four main products of System Center. One SMSE license allows you to manage the physical operating system environments and any number of virtual ones on a server.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) for Software Assurance

MDOP offers a suite of technologies that can help reduce application management costs, instantly deliver virtualized applications (via Microsoft Application Virtualization for Desktops, formerly SoftGrid), and better control desktop environments, enhancing IT responsiveness and user uptime.

You can get complete details on license rights for specific products.Go to the Microsoft Product Licensing Web site

Resources

Use these downloadable documents to learn more about Microsoft Volume Licensing and virtualization.

Virtualization-related Volume License Briefs

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Additional Resources

  • Learn More About Virtualization

    Microsoft virtualization provides a completely virtualized infrastructure for your enterprise, from data center to desktop.

  • Learn More About the Dynamic Systems Initiative

    The Dynamic Systems Initiative is Microsoft's technology strategy for products and solutions that help businesses enhance the dynamic capability of its people, process, and IT infrastructure using technology.